Calliope: A Renaissance Band

Lucy Bardo, strings
Allan Dean, high brass and winds
Steven Lundahl, low brass and winds
Ben Harms, percussion, strings, and winds

CALLIOPE: A Renaissance Band, is a chamber-music ensemble, presenting medieval, Renaissance, Baroque and contemporary American chamber music.

For over twenty-five years Calliope has toured North America frequently introducing to audiences for the first time the music and instruments of the 13th through the 17th centuries. The ensemble has performed in many of the nation’s most prestigious concert halls in New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Cleveland and many other cities, as well as concerts and workshops on college campuses.

The group has made five recordings and numerous soundtracks for TV and radio. As winner of the Naumburg Chamber Music Competition in 1976, Calliope was able to commission two new works for mixed renaissance instruments. With the commission of Peter Schickele’s BESTIARY in 1984, the group was influential in creating a new niche for early musicians, that of playing new music on old instruments as well as some crossover into folk and popular music.

Although Calliope stopped touring in 2000, the group has continued to perform concerts and outreach concerts in the Northeast as well as in a “big band” event at the Cloisters in NYC every June.

The three original members of Caliiope were also principal players in the Columbia Festival Orchestra: Lucy Bardo, cello; Allan Dean, trumpet, and Ben Harms, percussion and contractor.

Press

Recordings/Video

To book this ensemble click HERE